david shepherdson, washington bureau chief of "the detroit news." thank you all for joining us today. for as long as most folks can remember, the unions have given their time, labor and money to democrats, only occasionally breaking with tradition and endorsing a republican for president as they did with ronald reagan and george h.w. bush. this year they will keep with tradition and support president obama's re-election campaign. teamster president james p. hoffa, our speaker today, says the labor union with 1.4 million members supports president obama and has criticized republicans and mitt romney for favoring c.e.o.'s over workers. after the r.n.c. convention in tampa, he told the huffington post that romney wants to annihilate organized labor but it's been a mixed bag for workers during the obama administration. attempts to raise the minimum wage has failed even when democrats dominated the house and the senate. some union supporters say the democratic national committee took labor support for granted when they chose north carolina, a right-to-wo